A Wish With Stardust
by DaisiesInTheHeart
Summary: SasuSaku. Sakura is a surgeon working in the ER and has to tend to Sasuke's wounds more than once.
1. Worst Day

You'll also find this fic on tumblr under tulpinchen2 :)

Like always, **enjoy!**

* * *

CHAPTER 1: WORST DAY

* * *

She sighed and closed the door of her locker gently with a quiet thud. Today was one of those days where everything you lay hands on just goes terribly wrong. When you wake up after the worst sleep you've ever had in your entire life, just to look into a mirror and see the disaster that is called your face and you think ' _Where, God,_ where _has puberty gone wrong?'_ It was one of those days where your shower just don't want to heat up and your hair seems to be a rat nest and you don't realize you wear your shirt wrong until you walk into work and people begin to look at you strangely. Another sigh left her lips and she pressed her palms into her eye sockets to try and sooth the burning of definitely not enough sleep, mixed with too much stress and hunger. Today everything had gone wrong for her. In every possible way she could think of, it had gone wrong. From the expired milk she'd drank, to her car not turning on, to the too cold coffee, to the pregnant wife who has died on her table. She tried not to think about it anymore as she put her coat on and walked out the changing room straight to the elevators. But she couldn't stop herself. The death of little kids always hit her the most in the worst way possible. And this time it had been an unborn child. And its mother. _Don't forget the mother Sakura_ , she thought. It had been a car accident. Apparently the woman wanted to cross a street when a Minivan hit her. The car hadn't been over speed limit but it had been fast enough to tear the placenta of the woman. It just wouldn't stop bleeding and the foetus was too young to survive.

The quiet ping of the elevator arriving on her wished floor brought her back from her thoughts. She glanced at the watch on her wrist. Almost three in the morning, just a few minutes and then she would drive home to a much needed shower and a hot chocolate with whipped cream.

"Done for tonight?"

Startled Sakura turned around and looked straight in the amazing blue eyes of Yamanka Ino. "Fuck Ino! Do you always have to fucking sneak your fucking way up to me? For fucks sake, get a goddamn hobby!" She let out a shaky breath and pressed her hand on her crazy beating heart.

Ino pulled an eyebrow up. "Well, that was many curses in just one simple sentence. Rough day?"

With one hand Sakura went through her long, light pink hair, brushing it behind her ears, and let out a sigh when she walked over to Ino, who sat behind a counter full of papers and some patient files.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I've been trying to stop cursing too much but it's harder than you'd think." Sakura furrowed her brows. "I thought you had the day shift?"

This time Ino sighed and an annoyed look crossed over her pretty face. "That new nurse asked me if I'd switch with her 'cause she has a date tonight with some sexy guy at a fancy place and awesome sex afterwards. I'm jealous."

"You have a sexy guy at home. Sai. Your boyfriend, remember?"

"But I want the date and the fancy place and awesome sex. Do you actually know when the last time was I had _actual_ sex?", the blond whined and pouted her lips in a way that Sakura couldn't even think about doing that herself. Ino always has been the girly one of them both. Sakura has liked dresses and shoes and make up as well, but Ino seemed to be just so much worse and could do things with her body Sakura didn't even know one could do, and that in spite of the fact that _she_ was the one who'd studied medicine for years. Ino was a beautiful woman with a perfect body who just knew how to present herself.

"I don't really want to know," Sakura answered.

"Last week," Ino still elaborated for her.

"How terrible."

"I know, right?"

Sakura rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Stop being so full of yourself Ino. At least you _have_ a sex life. I got just the life. The only penis I get to see at home is the one of Aki-chan. _That_ is sad."

Ino chuckled. "I didn't say I was jealous of _you_. How is he anyway? I miss him."

"He's with my parents for the week. And he misses you, too."

"I'd miss me too if the only face I got to see was yours."

"Shut up pig."

"Haruno-sensei! Could you do me a favor?" Sakura turned around to watch a new intern running to her. She lifted one of her eyebrows and waited patiently for the girl, who was hardly younger than herself, to reach her.

"What is it?"

The girl sighed and began to fumble with the clipboard in her hands. " Well I got that patient a few minutes ago with a head wound and bruises and grazes. And he refuses to let anyone take care of him who isn't at least an attending."

"And you didn't tell him that there's no one available?"

"I've tried! But he wouldn't listen."

Sakura sighed and turned back to Ino to pick up where they stopped talking a minute ago. "Would you call him? He's in a phase where he's afraid I'll die when I'm not with him. Might be good for him when he hears from someone other than me that I'm currently _not_ lying in a pool of blood or being hit by a car and will leave him forever."

Concern placed itself on Ino's face and Sakura could see that her brain was beginning to work. "That sounds serious Sakura."

The rosette nodded slowly. "Yeah I know. Call him, will you?" And with that she turned around and began to follow the intern into the ER, her thoughts by Aki and the shower she wanted to take and the cocoa she wanted to drink and how that all would have to wait a little while longer. The intern, she was called Momoko she remembered now, led her to a bed that was shielded from sight by room dividers. Sakura snatched clean gloves from a nearby table and walked behind the dividers with Momoko just two steps behind her and was greeted by the most brooding face she's ever seen. On the bed sat a man in his late twenties maybe. Blood spread all over his face from a cut on his forehead and his hands bruised and grazed. His eyebrows were furrowed and his look was so gloomy. He glared at her as he noticed her walking in.

"I said I wanted a real doctor," he growled. His eyes fixed on Momoko as if she were too stupid to follow his orders. She noticed how the girl flinched.

Sakura took the stool beside the bed, letting herself fall onto it while she gestured to Momoko to handle over the clipboard. Quickly she flew over the hastily, not quite decipherable, words written on it.

Sakura's eyes went up to watch him with a calm gaze. "I am a real doctor Uchiha-san," she said and picked her badge from her pocket to show him. His eyes travelled from the badge to her face and back again for a moment, then his eyes settled on her and narrowed.

"How old are you?" he demanded. "Eighteen?"

Sakura scoffed and rolled her eyes at him. "Twenty-five. It's impolite to ask a lady how old she is," she raised a brow and sent a scrutinizing look his way. "It's not quite polite to terrorize my interns either by not letting them work properly."

This time it was his turn to scoff but he still had the decency to look a tad ashamed. Okay, _maybe_ ashamed was the wrong word, with him sitting there brooding like a sulking child that was caught eating all the cookies.

"Well, I do want to keep my face," he scoffed quietly and she couldn't stop the laugh that built in her chest.

She grabbed a small torchlight and turned it on, smiling at him. "So, am I allowed to save that cute face of yours before it's too late and you get a real nasty infection, which will spread all over your head and will leave it looking like the back of the Hunchback of Notre Dame?"

He rolled his eyes a little and nodded once. Sakura pointed the light straight to his eyes and watched his pupils. As they got smaller and responded just how they should she turned the light off and asked him to follow her pencil.

"Except for the cut, is your head hurting in a weird way?"

He shook his head.

"Dizzy or blurred vision?" Again he shook his head. She put the pencil away and grabbed some wads and disinfectant. He let out a soft hiss as soon as she started to clean the wound.

"I hope you know that you are keeping me from my shower and my hot chocolate at home, and more important the bed that is waiting for me for thirty-eight hours. Alone." Sakura glanced at him, motioning to him to tilt his head a bit.

"I know now and apparently I don't care," he answered.

"I think you should, considering that I am the one with the needle and the scissors working closely to your face."

"Is that a threat?"

She gave him an amused smile. Completely ignoring his question she pointed to his now cleaned wound. "The good news is, that I don't have to stich it up. I'm going to tape it. But you have to keep it clean and neat. I highly recommend using an ointment."

She watched how he slightly tilted his head and gazed at her. And now that his face was cleared from the blood and grime she couldn't help but notice how handsome he was. Like, sex material handsome.

"And the bad news?" he demanded.

Sakura grinned at him, again fixating the cut on his forehead and for a brief moment she asked herself how exactly he got it. There were to kinds of patients in her daily life. The ones with the severe wounds who barely lived when they were brought in and couldn't speak one sentence that actually made sense. They were the real hard cases and she would spend hours to save their lives. These ones she liked the most –no offense. Not that she liked people being hurt and in so much pain that they screamed themselves into unconsciousness, but still. The second type of patients was the ones with minor injuries. People, that happened to stand nearby an accident or something. Those patients had this odd tendency to mistake her for their local hairdresser and tell her every single detail of how it all happened. She hated it. But that Uchiha guy didn't say anything. And somehow she was curious.

"No bad news," she laughed and began to close the cut. "It may take longer to heal without stitches but the chances that you won't get a scar are pretty good. I'm no plastic surgeon though." It was quiet after that for a couple of minutes until she finished the taping and slapped off her gloves. Brushing her hair back she stood up and turned to Momoko who still stood behind her.

"Clean the scrapes on his hands and give him a prescription for the ointment and some painkillers. And Momoko when you write off the forms and the report for the file, use your pretty handwriting. I don't want to spend hours wracking my brain on what the hell you've meant. Understood?" She didn't wait for an answer. Gazing back at Uchiha Sasuke she took her bag and smiled a last time at him. "Keep it slow Uchiha-san and use the ointment at least three times a day. Good night." And with that she headed to her shower. The first in two days.


	2. Pinky Promise

**AN** : First I want to say a huge **Thank you** for all the nice reviews and favs! I really enjoyed reading them :)

* * *

CHAPTER 2: PINKY PROMISE

* * *

It was her _real_ first day off in a month. And the wonderful thing about it was, that she had spent it sleeping. But what was _fantastic_ is, that she didn't have just one day off but three! For many people it probably didn't sounded like much but it was heaven for her. Not just because she was freed of all the blood and the screams of pain in her daily life, not to mention the vomit and piss, but also had the whole house to herself. Bless her parents. She loved Aki with all her heart. He was the sun in her life. The reason she lived, literally. But it was _so_ wonderful to have three days just for her. She could bathe as long as she wanted. Watch the adult stuff on TV without waiting until he fell asleep for sure. She could sing as loud as she wanted, without someone nagging from another room what a horrible singer she was. It could get even better if she had actual food in the house. In the moment her fridge showed just a shrimped cucumber, mustard and the infamous expired milk from the week before. When she'd shredded the whole fridge last night, she totally should've thought about needing to eat the moment she'd wake up. Well, she didn't and so she spent the second day of her time away from work grocery shopping instead of sitting on her couch with ice cream and Netflix.

She was standing in front the eggplants in the supermarket when her phone ringed. Silently she sent a prayer to all the Gods that were listening, hoping it wouldn't be the hospital that wanted her for a live saving surgery.

"You need to bring him to a psychologist," said the voice the moment Sakura picked up.

"Hello to you too mom," she answered and rolled her eyes to no one in particular whilst she compared the eggplants with each other, trying to figure out which one looked the best.

"I'm serious Sakura. It's not normal that he talks of blood and death. He's not supposed to know what death is in his age."

Haruno Mebuki was a strong headed and stubborn woman and had passed on especially these two characteristics to Sakura. Maybe this was one of the many reasons those two didn't get along so much. Or it was more the fact that her mother was a cold-hearted bitch, who never had heard of feelings. The first time Sakura told her mother she wanted to be a doctor and save lives, the elder woman told her, Sakura never would have it in her to reach her goal and should just settle with being a future housewife. She hadn't spoken to Mebuki for three weeks and their relationship hasn't increased after that very much. Like not at all. Every time she heard her mother's voice she thanked God she hadn't done how Mebuki has told her once, because she now was the youngest attending physician the hospital ever had.

"I have it under control for now," she told her mother. "It's totally normal that he is afraid of death, I spoke with a shrink at the hospital and he totally agrees with me. So _please_ stop bringing this up every single time we talk." She walked over to a table to weigh the eggplant that won the honor to be eaten by her.

It was silent for few seconds and she knew her mother wanted to say something that would probably hurt Sakura's feelings. But she didn't say anything upsetting, what could only mean that her father set nearby on his favorite spot on the couch and shook his head to his wife, silently hissing to shut the fuck up.

"He wants to talk to you," her mother said instead. Sakura could hear some shifting and Mebuki talking and then there was a new voice.

"Mommy?"

Her heart immediately melted when she heard him. "Hi sweetie. How you doing?"

"Fine." A little pause. And then she could literally hear him tear up. "Are you okay mommy? Aunt Ino said you are but I don't know…"

"I am perfectly fine sweetie. I'm in the supermarket, nothing can happen here."

"Promise?"

Sakura smiled and just wanted to hug him and kiss him on both his cheeks and forehead, like she always did to reassure him. "Pinky promise."

"I wanna go home." He sounded like a sad puppy sitting lonely in the rain and she was _this_ close to drive up to her parents' house and get him. But the mentioned shrink had told her it could help with his phase, if he sometimes spent a few days with other people, other than her, to make him used to the fact of not seeing her every day. Sakura worked a lot. But she always made sure to go see her little four-years-old son between surgeries every day and normally spent a whole day and a half each week with him away from work, only reachable for emergencies. It was important to her that she spoke to him every day before he would go to sleep and if she could read him a story. Now she would send him every three weeks to her parents for three days. And she was not allowed to show up during those days. So she would be strong and not give in to his little sad voice and his watering big eyes she had imprinted in her brain. Damn, that was really hard.

"Tomorrow Aki-chan. Grandpa will bring you back home tomorrow evening and then we're going to watch that new Disney movie." He complained a bit after that and got all grumpy and snappy but he was a well-raised kid, so he eventually just said okay and let her promise not to die and hung up.

With a sigh she put away her phone and raised her head just to look up into two of the most beautiful eyes she's ever seen. Dark grey. Almost obsidian. She'd had to be too tired in the hospital to not notice how pretty they were.

"Uchiha-san," she said and smiled at him. "I hope you are better now."

He turned fully to her, nodding in a greeting as he put tomatoes in his shopping cart. His dark hair looked like he's just woken up from bed, covering his injury from sight.

"It's fine." Then he eyed her and tilted his head in that cute way, which reminded her of little curious kittens. "Seems like you caught up sleep. You definitely don't look like a zombie anymore."

She laughed and glanced up at him, noticing how much taller he was.

"As charming as ever." She raised a brow. "Without all the blood you don't look as interesting as I thought."

A tiny smile played around his lips and he moved his cart further. "See you doc." She smiled and watched his retreating back for a moment and she couldn't stop herself from thinking how strange she found him, in an endearing sort of way. And in a sad way, too. She couldn't put a finger on it and he hadn't done anything that indicated something. And she sure as hell didn't know him. But somehow he managed to make her feel content and sad in the same time. She shrugged and pushed that feeling aside, concentrating on the task at hand: buying her something to eat. It didn't take her much longer to finish shopping after that but as she stood at the cashpoint she cursed to herself that, again, she'd made the stupid mistake going shopping hungry. Now it seemed like she wanted to feed a family of ten.

She also hissed and cursed and wanted to smash herself against a wall as she tried to stir her cart to her car without bumping in other people. It was still as hard as it used to be. She was sure that everyone who ever tried to push a shopping cart in front of themselves, could totally relate to how impossible this was. Sakura didn't know if it was just her, too stupid to figure out how to push that thing in a straight line (not like a blind snake), or if the idiot who had constructed those things had been a dumbass. A loud curse left her lips as the cart slipped out of her hold and bumped straight into her own car. She closed her eyes for a second and told herself that the day was wonderful. A soft chuckle reached her ears and she turned around to be eye to eye to that Uchiha guy for the second time this day.

He raised a brow at her, still that smile on his face, no matter how small it was.

"Need a hand?" he asked. He stepped closer and came to a stop few inches away from her.

Sakura frowned and squinted her eyes a little against the bright winter sun. It was still surprisingly warm for November. Somehow she didn't like it. "No, no," she said, glancing back at her cart and the immense amount of things she purchased. "I'll handle it. No need to stop you from more important things. But thanks."

She noticed how he rolled his eyes at her. He put the bag with his purchases down, leaning it against her car and grabbed her cart. He stirred it away from the trunk so that she could actually open it.

"Really, you don't need t-," she tried again but was cut off.

"It's okay," he stated, looking over to her as he reached for one of her bags, storing it inside her trunk. Their gazes interlocked and it was like she looked into two dark grey pools, trying to read him but failing. She sighed, a small grin dancing over her lips as she nodded to him.

"Thank you," she told him as she helped with the storing. He said nothing and she didn't try to start a conversation with him. She kind of liked the silence between them, which was not really uncomfortable. It took them not longer then two minutes to store everything inside the car and when she closed the door with a low thud, she smiled up at him. "Again, thanks."

He leaned a bit forward to pick his bag up. His hair fell into his eyes and she almost reached up to brush it out of his sight. _Almost_. Not like it would _ever_ happen.

"Try not to buy so much next time," he said, an arrogant smile on his face but the look in his eyes told her that he was just messing with her.

Rolling her eyes she fingered for her keys in her pockets. "It's not _that_ much," she lied.

"Yeah sure," he responded. "See you around Haruno." And off he went.

Sakura stared after him, just surprised that he remembered her name from reading it on her badge one single time. A genuine smile broke on her face and she pushed her hair back, glancing one more time at him.

Without Uchiha Sasuke's help it was such a pain in the ass to carry her purchases from the car into her house, when she arrived back home. And when then one of the bags ripped open and the eggs managed _somehow_ to crack she stood for a moment still and looked around for someone who might watch her. There was no one in sight, so she cursed in a fist of anger and threw a little tantrum. But after that everything ran rather smoothly. With a weary sigh she dropped herself on her couch and closed her eyes for a moment, relishing the moment of silence after all the hard work of storing everything. When she opened them again she picked the spoon she brought with her from the kitchen up and reached for the ice cream bucket. Triple chocolate, her favorite. Fifteen hours later she was in the middle of season four of 'Parks and Recreation", laughing hard, a plate with curry in her lap when her phone ringed for the second time this day.

* * *

She turned left to another street and drove up until she reached her destination. Slamming her foot on the brakes she came to a stop, right in front of the little house. Sighing she jumped out the car and went up the little pathway that led the way to the front door. Putting her right hand on the wooden surface she knocked three times and waited. Food steps sounded from the other side and when the door swung open she was faced with the stiff face of her mother. But she hadn't the chance to speak with the older woman when again the sound of food steps reached her ears. But this time lighter and faster. And suddenly her little son slammed into her, wrapping his little arms around her legs and holding on to her tightly. Sakura dropped slowly to her knees to properly hug him. Aki buried immediately his face in the crook of her neck, arms wrapping around her shoulders, and she could feel the moisture of his tears on her skin.

Her mother had called her half an hour ago to tell her that Aki's woken up from a really bad dream, screaming for his mother and crying that there was blood everywhere. Her mother had been genuinely desperate when she'd spoken to her over the phone, not able to sooth her grandson. Sakura stood up, still holding her child and balancing him on her left hip. Mebuki handed Aki's bag with his stuff over to her, her mouth set in a grim expression she glared at Sakura like it was all her fault. "He needs help," Mebuki told her daughter. Her voice dripped from anger. She always was angry like it was the only emotion she was capable of feeling.

"Not now mom," Sakura sighed and grabbed the little blue bag pack, yanking it out of her mother's grabs.

But Haruno Mebuki never knew when it was enough. "If you wouldn't be working as a surgeon in that damn hospital, he'd never seen that and wouldn't be so afraid now. If you'd just stayed home like every other woman and would actually be there for your child-"

"Shut the fuck up mother!" Sakura's green eyes bore into her mother's, anger and hate speaking loudly through them and she was sure, hadn't she been carrying Aki she couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't have slapped her mother across the face. "I'm not having this conversation with you now."

And with that she turned on her heels and went back to her car. She opened the back door, still feeling Mebuki's glare boring into the back of her head, and threw Aki's bag pack in the back of the car. Then she walked with him around the vehicle and let them both sink in the driver's seat. Sitting in her lap Aki pressed his face into her chest and sobbed quietly. He was always quiet when he cried, even when he was afraid. Sakura remembered one time when there had been a storm raging across the whole village. It'd been pouring like someone wanted this place to become an ocean. And even when the sky had hung low with all the huge dark clouds, looming right above the city, it never was dark. Every few seconds lightning had illuminated the sky, crashing down on them followed by an enormously loud roar of thunder. Sakura's always been a light sleeper. So when Aki had stood beside her bed that night, doing nothing and just crying silently, she immediately had noticed and pulled him in. So it didn't really surprised her that he wasn't saying anything to her now. He always needed his time to compose himself. Sakura brushed a hand through his messy dark hair and kissed him on top of his head, the other hand stroking soothing circles on his back.

"Hey sweetie," Sakura hushed with a soothing voice a few minutes later. "Why are you crying? It makes me said when you cry." But the little boy just shook his head and buried his face further into her sweatshirt. She pulled back a little bit and put one finger under his chin, trying to get a look on his tear stained face.

"Look at me Aki," she demanded. She sighed when Aki didn't look up but tried to bury himself in her chest again. But this time she placed her hands under his armpits and sat him up a bit straighter. Her fingers laid themselves softly on his cheeks and forced him to look her into her face. "I'm listening," she told him while brushing his tears away. "So tell me."

Another stream of tears poured out of his eyes and he pushed his bottom lip out. Sakura almost laughed at his sight, with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips trembling he always was so cute. But instead her own brows knitted together in concern and her heart clenched when she noticed how distressed her little boy was. His eyes fixated hers and he hiccupped as he tried to speak.

"I don't want you to die", he said, his voice low and a bit higher than it normally was. "I don't want you to be a doctor anymore!" He started crying again, soft sobs leaving his trembling lips.

 _Oh boy,_ Sakura thought. For a short moment she closed her eyes and tried to will the beginnings of a headache away. When she opened them again she was staring in Aki's watering eyes, a look of sternness and stubbornness in them that she's never seen before on him. She smiled softly at him, brushing her fingers across his soft and wet cheeks whilst all the images from that day emerged in front of her inner eye. The street and the rushing cars, Aki crying and standing alone in the crowd and her own cracking voice shouting at him to close his eyes. And, of course, there was all the blood dripping from her hands and splashed across her face, covering most of her body whilst she tried so hard to save the life of that girl that she had failed to see that it was her own son who needed saving.

"Aki," she began, her voice soft and soothing. "I'm sorry. I really am and I whished you haven't seen that, but the girl needed my help. She was hurt and –" Sakura paused and looked him right in his eyes, trying to hold his glance. "She was dying," she said.

A soft whimper left Aki's mouth and he shut his eyes and tried to turn his head away. But Sakura held his chin softly in place.

"Do you know what that means Aki-chan?" She asked him.

She watched him open his eyes again, slowly, like he was afraid to look at her. Timidly he nodded. "It means when you go to sleep and never wake up again."

Sakura smiled sadly at him. "Yeah," she said. "But some people have accidents and go to sleep way too early without waking up again. And I try to help them."

There was the stubbornness back in his eyes. "But why you? There's lots of doctors where you work!"

There are a lot more people dying, but this wasn't anything she would tell him. She wanted to tell him, that being a doctor was all she ever wanted to be in her life, to be able to help people, to save them, but how could she make a four-year old understand? Not at all. He didn't have to understand anything. So instead she kissed his forehead again and both his cheeks before she pulled him into a tight hug, breathing in his scent and said,

"Okay. Let's go home and have some ice cream and tomorrow when we both aren't tired we can talk again."


End file.
